After weeks of speculation, the company behind BlackBerry have finally lifted the lid on their tablet, the PlayBook. The PlayBook is expected to rival the iPad and the soon-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy Tab, as well as the stream of rival tablet computers on the way.

At the moment it is very much “work in progress” but on paper it looks good, particularly for businesses. It is smaller and more portable than the iPad (for now) and among the features promised are front and rear facing cameras to enable video conferencing, and HDMI video output. They are optimistically suggesting this could mean business users may leave their laptops behind in future.

They claim it is designed to sync with your BlackBerry Smartphone, so in theory customers will be able to switch between the two seamlessly, whatever their needs. From a personal point of view, it will be interesting to see whether the synching feature works properly, as I have great trouble synching my BlackBerry to my email!
Unfortunately it won’t be available in the US until early 2011 and Europe in the second quarter of next year. While they may have missed the boat by not getting it out for this Christmas, they have timed their announcement to encourage loyal BlackBerry customers to hold off entering the market yet.

See here for the official press release.

Experts estimate upcoming launches and the continued success of Apple’s iPad could lead to worldwide sales of 50m next year. It is the same for Apps, with sales estimated in the region of £5bn in the next 5 years. It’s worth considering the Apple Store offered 500 Apps at launch and there is now in excess of 250k, with over 6bn Apps downloaded.

While the growth in Apps provides an opportunity for brands, too many advertisers create them for the sake of it, without really understanding what their audience wants. The huge numbers of Apps out there makes it important to create relevant, engaging material people will want to come back to. Here are a couple of examples we like:

• Ocado and Tesco Groceries – Allowing you to purchase shopping on the move
• Sky Player – Allowing users to record their programmes on the go
• Stella bar finder, Urban Spoon, Last minute.com – Using geolocation and Augmented Reality to find relevant bars/ restaurants/ POI

With the global economic downturn, those in search of their dream jobs have had to think outside the box in order to get noticed – and get a foot in the door!
Most of you will have read about David Rowe. He was the history graduate, who spent five days last year as a human sandwich board roaming the streets of London proclaiming his availability for work as well as his willingness to work his first month for free. After generating much media attention and interest from various employers he was hired by JC Decaux.

That was a brilliant example of confidence and determination which paid dividends. But he’s already done it. So what next? Enter Alec Brownstein of New York. Working as a Copywriter and dreaming of a career with one of the top agencies in NY, he created an online ad campaign for only $6 which has proved to be a masterclass in online marketing! He created a campaign, in which, every time Gerry Graf, Tony Granger, David Droga, Ian Reichenthal and Scott Victrone Googled themselves, an ad would appear which read: “Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun too.” He ended up being interviewed by four of the advertising chiefs and was offered a post by Reichenthal and Victrone of Y&R New York. Genius!